ABSTRACT
Italy constitutes a good deviant case study for comparison with European countries in that it often provides the 'most different systems design of comparison', but its considerable differences require some preliminary explanation. Perhaps what Italian public opinion lacks is the automatic connection between the burden of taxation and the funding of the welfare state. Most Italian welfare policies are fragmentary, being based on specific groups and originating from patronage ties between particular groups or categories and politicians or political parties. With the aim of reducing the public deficit, the real restructuring of the system is having to start from pensions, which account for almost two thirds of social expenditure. The problem of social care for the elderly highlights the link between the central importance of the family and its neglect by public authorities. The start of modern services for the elderly was not prompted by pressure to reduce the costs of institutionalization or to transfer elderly long-stay patients from hospitals.
